The Summer Album
by Dcfan100
Summary: The supernatural always seems to enjoy dropping into our lives during the summer season doesn't it? A Drabble collection for NejiTen month 2019.
1. Just For Starters

**Done for Tumblr and the Discord's #NTmonth2019 event. Do forgive my rust. Enjoy**

**Drabble 1: Just For Starters**

"You know what I like about you Neji?"

A clap of thunder sounded in the distance as if to answer her as a bulky worn, navy blue van came rolling to a screeching halt at the corner of Ross and Perot in the cities downtown. The agitated occupants were thrown about in their seats as the van wheels rolled over every one of the bricks the city deemed too "historic" to replace and lurched forwards before their seatbelts reeled them back in.

"Don't start with me," Neji replied testily, tapping his fingers across the top of the steering wheel as his eagle eyes scanned what he was sure by now was a very outdated map app on his phone.

"You never give up," his companion in the front seat continued as she hit the power button on the top of phone and shoved an atlas into his hands before pointing outside the van window. "Even when the truth is barreling down at you, even when it's two inches from your face you press on."

"Don't mess with that," Neji muttered as he snapped the phone out of her hands and hit the red release switch on his seatbelt. He took a look down the nigh deserted downtown road and exited his seat.

Images of the time he'd been helping Tenten prepare for her drivers test flashed before his eyes. They'd argued about directions for hours and had ended up stuck in the middle of a cornfield somewhere deep within the the state without gas or cellphone service. It seemed to be a given that things were going to get a little crazy with her around, that's just the way things were.

Was it to much to ask that for once in his life they could have just a normal run of the mill day, without hijinks, hair brained schemes or nasty surprises of any kind? Could he just have one of those days where she didn't come barrelling through his door with some master plan to collect the requisite 50 cereal boxtop's for the prize advertised on the back by raiding the schools pantry? Was that really so much to ask?

From the backseats of the hollowed out van, dressed to the nines in suits and ties neither Naruto or Kiba bothered even a simple sympathetic glance towards the constantly bickering couple. Stress, the two found out had funny way of affecting the minds of people who actually cared about their grades in their freshman Choral Music class.

Still, Kiba pondered looking up from his Fire Emblem game as he watched the driver and passenger doors open and slam shut with force that could only come from a pair of people who were completely and totally done with each other; individuals who were this concerned with their performance probably should've paid more attention to the directions ahead of time.

It was his supped up van that they were manhandling anyways. It was his mystery machine as he'd dubbed it, cleared in the back of stifling space consuming seats and replaced with the finest shag carpeting, bolted leather couch and mini fridge a college freshman's allowance could buy. Though he'd like to have pretended to be chill about it, he still wasn't happy they'd taken it careening across the freeway snipping at each other the whole time about how this was just like school, how this was just like the other and so on and so forth.

"You stand your ground. At least I can say that about you."

"I'm out of the car! I'm asking for directions! What more do you want?"

"You may not always be right but you're never in doubt!" Tenten continued in the most mockingly enthusiastic tone Kiba had ever heard, a hammy smile two facial features away from a sneer plastered on her face.

Neji threw his hands up in the air in defeat and walked away, heading for the first light he saw.

The downtown was quiet at 7 o'clock in the business district. Commuters had long since packed up and left for home, and most of the local shops had soon followed suit, their main source of revenue having scattered to the winds. The silence of the city was almost eerie, and besides the occasional car skipping over the uneven brick work and that all to close for comfort clap of thunder in the distance there wasn't a sound to be heard. Neji frowned at the dark clouds in the sky and turned into a small inlet between a Subway and bakery marked Dekobokko alley.

"Five bucks says they're shacking up before the year ends." Naruto muttered from the seat beside Kiba, mashing away at the Capcom fighter in front of him.

"Are we watching the same two maniacs?" Kiba asked, looking away from his game just long enough to shoot a quizzical look sideways.

"People who weren't snogging behind the gym don't argue like that," Naruto said emotionlessly as he watched his character eat an aerial combo and get beaten into the ground by the CPU.

"You think? Alright, I'll see your five bucks and match you with at least ten half off breakfast tickets at Denny's."

Even with his eyes back on his game Kiba could feel the strange stare coming from the seat next to him.

"Ino's got me coupon cutting," he muttered quickly.

"You're on."

Haku's Mystic Emporium, an establishment which greeted it's patrons with a door of mahogany wood carved with the faces of medieval magicians and a face full of white smog from a smoke machine placed right beside the door, would not have been Neji Hyuga's first choice to ask for directions, especially when his grades were on the line. A sudden coughing fit from the girl behind him told him that it probably wouldn't have been Tenten's first choice either.

"Excuse me! We're in need of directions and I was hoping you could help us out," he spoke rapidly running through his greeting spiel as quickly as possible. He matched his gait with his speech as he approached the counter, passing walls and glass displays of metallic masks, Euclidean crystals and ancient looking amulets.

A gentle face turned to greet him, long black hair tied up into a ponytail, hands folded apologetically in the way of greeting.

"Sorry, I'm afraid I was just about to close up," the figure said, motioning to the bag draped over the counter and twirling a key for the pair to see.

"I saw the clearance sign out front, moving shop?" Tenten asked diplomatically with an apologetic smile of her own, stepping in front of Neji who tossed her nothing more than an annoyed glance.

"Nah, closing up for good I'm afraid." The figure sighed, a sudden look passing through the easy features and evolving into a look of nostalgia as the key came to a halt and rested back on the counter top. "Business just isn't what it used to be,"

"Well that sucks," Tenten frowned, trying to keep the conversation going while taking a hard left on her heel and looking at all the wares in the cabinets. "This stuff looks…crazy mystical,"

"We're actually on our way to the Chamber Concert downtown," Neji interjected again. He knew Tenten would be interested in such things, but then again she also found Chuck E. Cheese to be mystical, and an extensive detour through the shop didn't exactly appeal to him at the moment. The proprietor raised an eyebrow at the dirty look the pair were sending each others way, their faces contorted like they were engaged in some sort of telepathic tug of war.

"Performing choral music and all that, big event." Tenten said, not taking her eyes off of Neji, but still attempting to sound halfway amiable. "Prof was very strict about us showing up on time, but someone thought 475 would take us straight there. It did not."

"You just can't resist can you?" Neji shot back, letting the atlas hit the table with an un-cordial smack. "I keep telling you. It used to take us straight there,"

"And that is just of…" Tenten paused, throwing her hands above her head and squeezing her eyes shut in consternation as she tried to find the words while the mysterious owner began leafing through the booklet. "Magnificent help to us at the moment isn't it?"

"You're the one who insisted we stop and ask someone, you want to give our host a chance to speak or…?"

"Senju Chambers Concert Hall?" There was silence in the Emporium again as their two sets of eyes turned towards the counter. Another clap of thunder in the distance, and another sudden puff from the smoke machine broke the spell. "Here, take this map. It's one of mine. Issued by the Chamber of Commerce and all that. There's all kinds of construction going around here, and the city councils been bickering for the last hundred years about what the streets should be named, but this should still be accurate."

"Excellent," Neji said as Tenten peeked over his shoulder at the concise directions scrawled onto the pamphlet in purple ink.

"Thanks uhhh… Haku?" Tenten asked, nervously hoping she'd gotten the name right.

"Founder and majority shareholder," Haku returned with a polite smile.

"Thanks Haku, you're a lifesaver," Tenten bowed her head in appreciation and flashed an impish smile of her own to reciprocate.

"Oh please don't mention it. Now do forgive me if this sounds forward, I know you don't have a lot of time, but this is a clearance sale." There was a twinkle in Haku's eyes that Neji didn't like. He knew that look well, a little too mischievous, a little too playful, just like a certain someone he knew. Quickly he tried to deflect the request.

"Oh um…"

"Don't be rude Hyuga,"

"I really don't think we have time," came the flat reply.

"Neji, we just had our butts pulled out of the fire."

"And if we don't get a move on we're going to be late and Professor…"

"Gai will be fine with it,"

"Because he knows Kakashi will rake us over the coals. We'll be doing scales until graduation."

Haku's head shook slowly from side to side, mostly in amusement as the pair of dark brown eyes swept back and forth between the two while their verbal sparring match entered its next phase. Slowly, slyly, Haku reached beneath the counter and fished out a weighty looking crystal colored imperial purple, perched nicely atop an iron stand.

"You know what? It's clearance anyways. How about you just take this? On the house," Haku's voice caused a lull in the fighting as Neji and Tenten traded hesitant glances.

"You're too kind…" Neji began at first, placing his hands in front of his person, his tone of voice tepid at best, attempting to politely indicate that he really didn't care much for the idea.

"Please, I insist. Hope you reach the hall on time." Haku smiled, slipping from out behind the counter and pressing the object into Neji's already stuffed hands. The boy fumbled it slightly as Haku placed a hand on his shoulder and walked the pair towards the door still obscured by smoke. The pair were ushered out as promptly and as a hurriedly as they'd entered. Without even a second chance to thank the proprietor they were through the white vapors and out the door. Before it closed behind them Haku's voice echoed from back across the threshold. "Oh and…be careful, that's piece is so very fragile."

"Ok hand it here," Tenten demanded instantly as another clack of thunder boomed closer to them and the black summer storm clouds ahead rolled in closer to the city skyline.

"What?"

"Neji, you've got your phone, the map and the bus' atlas. Give it here before you drop it!"

"This coming from the girl who brings cafeteria trays out to the plaza on her head."

The thunder clapped once again, right above them this time as their discussion became even more hurried and anxious.

"Yeah, I'm trained to do this!"

"Oh you're "trained" sorry I didn't know."

"Give," Tenten snapped reaching for the crystal as Neji continued trying to tuck it under his arm while jostling the papers and phone in his other.

"Tenten, I'm telling you to stop," he demanded. A vision flashed before his eyes, one in which everything lay scattered across the ground in multiple pieces. He wouldn't have minded ridding himself of the unwieldy gift from that all too polite shopkeeper. At the same time, Tenten seemed to be making a good deal of fuss about it, and if it was important to her…

"And I'm telling you…" she chided, breaking through his thoughts, reaching over his right shoulder to try and grasp at the bulky knick knack.

As if one cure, there was one more enormous crack from the sky that cut off her final phrase. A lighting bolt tore open the clouds and let loose the floodgates. In an instant droplets started dancing against the pavement before quickly devolving into blinding sheets.

Neji winced as the rain clouded his vision, cascading down in angled waves. The pair instinctively tried to begin their mad dash back towards the dry confines of the now distant van. Cold water snapped against their faces and filled their eardrums with the sound of the constant downpour causing them to try and shield their faces. Tenten attempted to pull her arm back and only succeeded in snagging it on the corner of Neji's elbow. In the next instant…

A sickening crack broke the monotony of the torrential rain shower, making just enough noise to be heard above the patter of the storm. Another clack of thunder burst through the air as their eyes naturally gravitated towards the ground, expecting to find the crime scene like remains of their souvenir from Haku's shop.

"Figures," Tenten shouted above the din doing a quick sweep of the ground. She squinted, trying her best to peel here eyes for any sign of the crystal before she called over to him above the storm. "Let's not play the blame game, just get the pieces together and get back to the van as quickly as possible."

"The maps going to look like papier-mâché by the time we get back." Neji muttered, attempting to tuck it into his suit jacket as the two scattered towards the van.

The rain soaked them through their clothes and chilled them to the bone as their dress shoes kicked up water in the rapidly forming puddles. They dashed around the alley corner to be greeted by the faint sound of the running engine of the van and the gurgling of the already flooded drainage system amidst the steady shower of rain against old brick.

Neji felt his movements slowed as a chill ran up and down his spine. It vaguely reminded him of running through a dream or the time Tenten had challenged him to a race through the mud in the shallow slough behind his uncles property. Reality and his vision seemed to blur as the van moved further and further away into the distant pouring rain. He felt his breath become shorter, more erratic and his heart began to beat faster inside of his chest. Then all of a sudden he and Tenten were throwing open the side doors and stepping inside, both gasping for air as they dripped onto the carpeting.

Neji felt his head pulsate slowly as the blood continued its journey through his veins. His breathing slowly made its way from erratic back down to calm and controlled. As he wiped wet hair from his vision his gaze strayed to the even more erratic breathing of his companion. The dissonance started when he noted her clothes being several sizes different than when he'd last bothered to look, it grew into concern as his eyes continued following her figure up, and up and up before evolving into genuine panic as he concluded from the decidedly male looking visage that this was not the same figure he'd stepped into the van with.

"ACHOO!" The damp atmosphere overtook his system before the fear could, but when the sound of his sneeze came out sounding more like a terrified kitten falling into a bed of tissues his adrenaline kicked into high gear.

Tenten for her part had snapped like a magnet towards the strange intruding sound and was now gawking at the sight before her. Where Neji Hyuga had stood seconds ago…well technically she hadn't actually seen him get into the van…he may have seemed a little bit shorter running back to the van though, but that was all perspective right?

None of that mattered! What she was absolutely sure of was that she hadn't gone to school for 12 years with a five foot, dour faced petite Hyuga girl, with flowing raven hair extended down her back and piercing pearly white eyes that locked and scanned their targets with machine like efficiency…ok so maybe most of those traits could also be applied to Neji. The realization hit her all at once as she subconsciously took a step back and cocked her head sideways like she was looking at the loch ness monster.

"….No, no way." She clasped her hands over her mouth as soon as she heard the words emerge in a voice a number of octaves lower than she was used to.

Neji blinked, normally analytical eyes looking like a blue screen computer as her mind kept trying to logically process and walk through the steps of what had just happened before eventually coming back to the unsettling revelation that the same girl who had eaten an entire sleeve of Oreo cookies and thrown up in his bed when she was 8 was now a chestnut haired being built like a brick wall with a brisk tenor voice and a bright boyish face.

In front of them Kiba and Naruto looked up from their games and finally, traded looks of confusion. Collectively, they slowly and cautiously set aside their devices and leaned forwards, crossed a leg over the other to assume the Thinker position.

"Hmmm, something's different." Kiba postulated, stroking his goatee stubble sagely.

Naruto nodded along importantly as his narrowed eyes darted back and forth between the two newcomers in the van.

"Something's changed," he concluded as the pitter-patter of the rain on the van roof continued full blast.

Neji and Tenten stared wide eyed at the pair, then at each other, then at their own hands; both quickly putting them to use doing a snap inventory and search of their new persons, taking stock of what body parts were and were not still present and accounted for. Naruto and Kiba watched the panicked game of head and shoulders, knees and toes with a type of scientific curiosity they'd mostly reserved for dissecting frogs back in the 9th grade.

Tenten seemed to be the first to come to grips with the situation as she turned her head wildly towards everyone present, mouth agape, a befuddled and confused

"Waahhh?" bereft of air or understanding escaping his lips.

"Ok, I'm just gonna come out and ask," Naruto said uncrossing his legs and spreading his arms with a casual shrug. "What happened back there?"

It looked as if gears were beginning to turn inside Neji's head once more as she began thinking long and hard to recall what had just occurred. Beside her Tenten just held his new hands out in front of him, flexing and turning them over as if to get a feel for them.

"There was…shop…crystal…" Neji began slowly, trying to piece it all together. One of Tenten's new hands reached over and daintily patted the top of her head. The reaction was immediate.

"HEY!" Neji jumped backwards at the sudden touch. Instinctively raising her hands in a fighting pose.

"Sorry!" Came the panicked apology. "I'm just…crap, if this is a dream it probably means I've got some seriously deep seated issues doesn't it?"

"And join us again next week when Tenten analyzes the Freudian implication of her weapons fixation," Kiba concluded as if he'd witnessed all he needed to, promptly uncrossing his legs and resuming his game.

"What crystal?" Naruto pressed, brow furrowed as if the matter hadn't been settled as satisfactorily for his taste.

The question seemed to drag the pair back down to reality with the prospect of something they could actually answer.

"We just had it…" Neji muttered as their eyes back and froth between them and them across the van floor "What happened to it?"

"I told you to help me pick it up!" Tenten snapped.

"I had my hands full I assumed you were at least going to pick up part of it! Never mind that, we have to go back and see that emporium."

"Haku's Mystical Emporium?" Naruto asked, cutting into their argument.

"Yes?"

"Guys…that shops been closed for like a hundred years."

Neji rolled her eyes at this, instinctively dismissing the comment out of hand as a flight of fancy, a fantastical invention and yet another one of Naruto's jokes before returning to the task of rolling up the sleeves which seemed to have magically grown larger over the course of the past few minutes.

"We have to go back." Tenten's reaction on the other hand seemed to be one of wide-eyed panic and she immediately turned towards the van exit, banging her head on the now much lower slopping ceiling.

"Uhhh, yeah I don't think that's gonna happen." Naruto began, raising an eyebrow at the pairs antics. "You seriously never heard the legend of Haku? The cities very own time travelling dimension hopping trickster?"

Neji looked up briefly from her refitting tasks as a modicum of interest and worry seeped into her sharp looking features. Tenten too turned back to hear the story, nursing a sore skull all the while.

"You see these whiskers on the side of my face?" the blonde boy began calmly as Kiba carried on with his game nonchalantly beside him. "What do you think that is? Hair? Nah, this is what happened when I ate twizzlers from the candy cabinet of the Emporium I bought at age 6. Most of the other side effects faded. These never have."

"There's gotta be something….!" Tenten seemed to slip back into panic mode. She spun back around towards the door and banged her head once again on the ceiling before throwing the door open with excessive force.

"Stop doing that!" Kiba shouted in protest at the violence to his custom vehicle. "You've done this twice now! What's the scientific method? You're gonna leave a mark if you keep that up!"

"I never use to hit the ceiling ok?" Tenten shouted as she dashed back out into the rain. Without hesitation Neji jumped out after her as the pair headed for the alley once again. Naruto and Kiba once again traded unsure glances, shrugged their shoulders and bolted out into the light drizzle that the storm had been reduced to.

"Yes, welcome to the six foot club." Kiba droned as they rounded the concrete street corner and back down Dekoboko Alley. "The weathers magnificent up here isn't it?"

Tenten's ears perked up at this as she looked down at her now much shorter friend.

"So why'd I get tall while Neji got…" she paused looking for the most succinct and polite way to put it "tiny?"

He smiled apologetically down at his companion who simply huffed in response as their brisk run down the alleyway continued.

"Well he looks like he's about Hinata's height now. It's probably genetic."

"Which conversely means that whoever your parents were probably shooting guards for the Milwaukee Bucks." Naruto muttered to Tenten, jealously looking up at the few extra inches she'd gained on him.

They reached the end and stopped cold in their tracks, staring up at the imposing slab of concrete wall that stared right back down at them. Both Neji and Tenten got a sinking sensation in their gut as Neji approached the wall and ran her hands across it, as if she no longer trusted anything she saw with her own eyes to be real anymore.

"No, no, no…" the hand balled into a fist as she smacked the wall with all the force she could muster. "It was right here!"

"Definitely Haku," Naruto sighed. Around them the rain ground to a halt as the sun reemerged from behind the clouds and a sudden sickening heat arose from the blacktop around them.

For a second Tenten looked like he was about to slip into the same existential panic before he looked over at Neji's befuddled face. Slowly, he took a step back and took a deep breath. He placed his hands on his hips as he surveyed what had not five minutes ago been the site of one the only supernatural knick knack and novelty shop he'd ever set foot in. Gradually, he began to take stock of the situation.

"You guys are being weirdly calm about all of this," he said, voice still sounding somewhat drained and defeated as he stepped forward and put a hand on Neji's slumped shoulder.

"Yeah honestly I thought I was going to have a lot more to say about it…but I think I'm over it," Naruto shrugged as Tenten ran a hand up and down Neji's back while the girl seemed to become more and more visibly distraught.

"Why are you so blasé about this?" she belted out, voice breaking into a new pitch on the last word. "We have a concert in half an hour, we're completely lost, I'm a girl, Tenten's a guy…"

"And the proms tomorrow!" Naruto and Kiba chorused together as if to simply prove Neji's point about their collective attitude.

"You're not helping!"

"Neji! Relax!" Tenten attempted as the girl shook of her hand and whirled to face him, eyes ablaze and face etched with concern.

"Relax?" the girl cried out at the top of her lungs. "Do you know how many aneurisms my Uncle is going to have if I come home looking like this?"

Tenten held his hands up in front of him as the angry visage of his choral partner glowered up at her, reminding her too well of what a furious looking Hinata must look like. The image was…distracting. Her new eyes didn't help any, crystal white, shimmering and dead set of not breaking eye contact until he produced an answer. Tenten felt his head begin to spin and took another deep breath through his nose upon realizing he hadn't drawn one in the last twenty seconds since their showdown began.

"L-look," he stammered, "Let's just go to the concert."

"I can't go to the concert looking like this! If anyone…if they see you or me"

"You guys ever see that old anime Ranma ½?" The side bar interjected, having put their heads together and brainstormed the best solution to the problem in front of them that they could muster. Neji's face swiped to the left, livid and blush red.

"Not now Kiba!" she demanded.

"I'm just saying, I think it's relevant to the situation at hand." Kiba muttered as he motioned to Naruto for the pair to head back to the van. "Now how did they do it in the anime?"

"Look!" Tenten attempted, moving a hand towards Neji once again. "It'll be fine, we can find a way to fix this."

"How Tenten, just how do you of all people propose to solve problems you can't beat across the head with that two by four of yours like you always do?" Neji continued, voice still remaining uncomfortably loud and stingingly derisive.

"We'll wing it!" Tenten tried hopefully, putting on his most roguish smile in an attempt to exude on a hopeful demeanor. "Just like we've always done! We help each other out."

"Well maybe I don't want your help! Maybe you and I together are just a bad combination! Maybe every time I'm next to you something bad ends up happening and you end up being no help at all!" the words came spilling out of her mouth like she was on autopilot, a furious combination or rage and uncontrollable emotion mixed with every last ounce of garbage the day had stirred up and thrown at her spilling out all at once. The cocktail of ferocity mixed itself together in her mind and flew from her brain to her lips and out before she could even decide if she wanted to stop it.

The second the words tumbled out of her mouth, she knew they shouldn't have. Coming from her, someone who already rarely used two sentences when one would do, who had always taken care to remain civil and patient with him, from someone who he'd known for years the comment must've felt like a smack across the face.

She could see it on his expression even before she was done talking. Hands fell to his sides, mirth vanished from his lips and his eyes grew stern and colder.

"Fine," and with that one word he spun on his heel and left.

She knew she'd gone to far. For someone who didn't talk a lot her foot had certainly found its way to her mouth pretty efficiently. With no enthusiasm or energy left to spare she trudged after the girl turned boy remarking to herself just how typical the whole thing felt. It felt like the time they were 12 and she'd convinced him to sneak into a showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, their first R rated movie. It felt like the time they'd crashed their canoe on the rocks during the final evening of their freshman high school trip on an unauthorized joyride down the river and ended up having to lug the wreck all the way back to camp in the dead of night.

Yeah, she acknowledged. It was dumb, really, really dumb. Like the time in elementary school when he'd gotten his reading glasses and Tenten had swiped Hiashi's glasses straight from his nightstand and worn them to school the next day so they could match.

"Why don't we just leave each other alone, that's what you wanted right?" Tenten called out sourly behind him as he headed down another inlet in the alleyway and cleared the five foot brick wall with one running jump perfected over years of track and field. He sat atop it, back still turned, eyes peeled ahead.

Neji sighed to herself. It was an absurd situation. Utterly absurd, and she wouldn't have had it any other way. With a deep breath she took one step back and then shot forward at full speed towards the wall.

"No! No I will not!" Neji forced herself to climb, desperately clawing and grunting as she tried to scramble up the crumbling brick face. Her feet made wild flailing motions as the black dress shoes scuffed continuously against the surface, leave skid marks and red scratches all over the soles. Tenten turned surprised and watched, almost bemused at the much smaller figure, red faced and hair mussed gave it all she had whilst still coming up just short of the ledge.

"Don't you laugh at me," she wheezed, "I just have to get used to this height thing…"

Slowly Tenten extended a hand and pulled the furious looking figure up to his level with a smug but content smile on her face.

Neji took it without a second hesitation. She pulled herself up and rested on top of the wall, on her knees, looking Tenten's squatting figure dead in the eyes as her chest heaved, face still red as she tried to catch her breath. She wiped the sweat from her brow and snapped Tenten's hand in her own.

"I'm sorry." She said simply between breaths. Tenten cocked his head aside once again and raised both eyebrows.

"You've always had the tendency of getting a little heated when things get crazy." He drolled. Neji's face would've gone two shades of red deeper had such a thing been possible as she tried to keep eye contact with him.

"Yeah and we've always stuck by each other. No matter how crazy things got." Neji insisted, dropping her legs over the other side of the wall and sitting next to her friend. "I'm not leaving. I'm an idiot and you're my best friend. I'm not going to that concert with anyone except you."

"Neji," That roguish handsome grin of his was back she noted. She swallowed as she felt her hand embrace his tighter. She let her gaze slip down at the sight for just a second before making eye contact once again.

"This isn't the last absolutely asinine experience we've had together and I'm betting it won't be the last so…if it's got to happen we might as well experience it together."

They were close now, very close. Two dumb kids in a dumber situation, goofy grins on their faces and hearts racing faster than they would ever admit.

"Reminds me of that time behind the gym…" Tenten giggled.

"Hey lovebirds! Heads up!"

The two suddenly cried out in pain as a douse of steaming water poured over them. A steady stream of curses fell out of their mouths as they blinked and sputtered, attempting to take stock of the situation. Their eyes darted back behind the wall to see Naruto and Kiba, smiles almost as wide and dumb as theirs had been sporting two large gray buckets that had apparently been filled with piping hot water.

Tenten and Neji looked back and forth between them, noting that everything had been as it was…sans the soaking clothes and mussed hair.

"So it's literally just the Ranma curse then." Naruto surmised. Kiba nodded sagely in agreement setting the bucket back down on the ground.

"Cold water changes you, hot water changes you back," he turned to Naruto "and you owe me five bucks."

Beside him Tenten split into the widest smile Neji had seen her with in the longest time. She wiped the water from her face and clutched his hand again, tighter this time.

"Screw it," she grinned "I can live with that."

"Come on," Neji nodded, hand still entwined with hers. "We've got a performance to get to."


	2. Fast Food

**I kept it under 2,000 words this time, though I have no idea how. Enjoy!**

****Drabble 2: Cursed****

Bannockburn is, in most senses of the word a typical Michigan town, a hamlet tucked away on the of the rolling expanse of the pine and hemlock evergreens that become ever more frequent the farther north one gets. It's situated just below the tip of the mitt, little less than an hour away from Mackinaw and not ten minutes south of Petoskey.

This is pleasant, if not terribly uneventful country. Its landscape is dotted with orchards of black cherry trees and blueberry bushes, fields of invasive honey suckle and foreign oxeye bring color to the natural open spaces and the trills of Nightingales can be heard late into the evenings from the babbling diamond creeks on the city outskirts to azure Lake Charlevoix in the west.

However, the areas desolate and sparse population also soon leads the mind to eerie speculations about what lies in the woods. What eldritch eyes peer out from the forest at night? What other earthly sounds reverberate across the landscape? What ancient bricks of Babylon, etched with elder secrets in blasphemous tongues lie at the foundations of the unassuming little town? Well…it leads some people to speculate about these mysteries anyways.

"I still don't see what McDonalds has to do with the supernatural," Neji says as he trails behind Tenten, the two of them balance atop of a once mighty oak tree, now fallen, its corpse splayed across the creek making for a perfectly natural bridge.

"Well you see Neji it's very simple," Tenten replies, her eyes still glued to her feet as she continues her delicate walk over the fallen trunk.

"_You lie,"_ he wants to say. There was the time she'd snuck them into that R rated movie by disguising them as a twenty something couple. The time they'd procured party snacks by rummaging through department store dumpsters for recently expired chips. Or that year she'd studied for midterms by trying to create an algorithm that could correctly predict the multiple choice order for Kakashi's American Lit class. It's never simple with her.

"In order to summon the ghost I need a food offering," she says with a half maniacal grin, stepping onto the other side of the creek and spreading her arms like she'd just tightrope walked across Niagara Falls.

"I want to go on record saying that this is a bad idea," he replies steadily, following her off the log without difficulty.

"Then why are you even here?"

Tenten shoots him another coy smile, the one she's reserved for him and the stray gold and white cat that shows up outside her backdoor every night at dinner time to beg for scraps.

Neji shrugs, adventure, excitement, irresponsible interference with the supernatural. Honestly it's not like him.

"Tenten, you know we can't get you mixed up in the dark arts again," he jokes, artfully dodging the question.

The pair snicker to themselves as they head off the beaten path and begin wading through the tall grass, ignoring the way it chafes against their exposed legs. Above them the birds watch warily as they head for Lake Nicostro.

Humans just don't venture towards this naturally eutrophicating body like they used to, not since the state highway was built just north of the town some 70 years ago, allowing both locals and tourists quick and convenient access to picturesque Lake Michigan.

Yet, though the edges are mossy are mash like, green with algae growth and hyrdilla Nicostro still looks as though it has a few good decades of life left in it. Some fifteen feet out from the shoreline the water clears, turning back into the shimmering clear waters that defined it half a century ago, and it's into these waters that Tenten shot-puts her McDonalds takeout bag.

Neji's reaction flows from enchanted to irritated almost instantly.

"Tenten!"

"It'll decompose," she drawls back to him in an annoyed voice, her tone rising to match his.

"Yeah, in a few hundred years!"

"It's all paper Neji!"

"Fast food wrappings aren't! That's all plastic fiber," he insists vehemently walking down to the edge of the water before spinning and giving her an even more accusatory look. "What ghost story says you need to chuck the entire thing, wrapping and all into the lake to summon the ghost?"

Tenten rolls her eyes, but there's something like a smile on her face. The afternoon sun is dripping through the shade of the lake trees, shedding gentle sunlight onto his pale features. Songbirds chirp overheard and the crowing of the loons can be heard from the lake. Water laps gently against the bodies edge and a summer breeze sends the tall grass whispering around them.

Her smile broadens as Neji's face slides into a baffled and almost equally amused look. She can tell that her gleeful look just confuses him, but she can't help it. A perfect summer day, doing stupid stuff out in the woods and bickering like old times. It all just seems right.

"Are there peanuts in this? Gai said I shouldn't have peanuts. Eugh, so much salt." a new voice from the water startles them as they jump instinctively, almost losing their balance on the damp embankment. Their gazes spin to the source of the voice, a young man dressed in skintight green with an otherworldly bowl cut who's intently squinting a McDonalds quarter pounder in his hand. He notices the direction of their gaze and suddenly claps his hands together and bows his head. "I apologize. I am quite grateful! Thanks for the meal!"

He resumes rummaging through the bag Tenten was absolutely certain she had rocketed out into the lake not a moment earlier. She notices that both the bag and the boy are bone dry and puts the piece together in her mind.

"You…you're the ghost of Nicostro lake?" she gapes. Neji does a double take looking back and forth between the pair as he and Tenten take a cautious step away from the potential specter.

The boy looks utterly abashed, almost ashamed of himself as he swallows with a cartoonish gulp, looking up at them like a child with his hand caught in the cookie car.

"I'm sorry to disappoint," he says before briefly turning a suspicious glance back towards the mysterious soggy grease enameled potato strips.

A ghost, an actual ghost. Old man Gai's stories couldn't have just been hocus then. The stories…they all had to be true. She could feel her heart beating as if it was threatening to burst from her sternum. To play ghost hunter and mystical summoner was one thing, this…just wasn't normal. Here was an answer to so many questions, yet paradoxically a creator of many, many more. Something had appeared to her, from beyond the gates, from the mist of the afterlife, from the shadowy realms…

The boy bites down on the French Fry and blanches, grimacing as he swallows. He turns his head to see their wide eyed, deer caught in the headlight looks and laughs nervously scratching the back of his head. He sets the bag beside him and rises to his feet, stretching his arms and legs like as if he's prepping to run a marathon.

"I am not ungrateful, please believe me! A deal is a deal! Shall we proceed?"

His words sound just a little too ominous for either of their likings.

"What's this now?"

"With the curse?" the boy asks quizzically as if it should have been patently obvious. He cocks his head to the side as his eyes obtain a faint green tint. Clouds begin rolling over head casting long shadows on the ground. A sudden chilling wind starts to blow through the air, scattering the birds above before gradually ascending into a lonely howl. "You broke the barrier between the living and the dead, those who do so do it with the knowledge that there is a price to pay for this correct?"

"Tenten!" It's at this point that Neji is truly beginning to sound cross.

"The legends like 80 years old how was supposed to have known?" Tenten yells back as the wind continues picking up. The boy from the lake begins to float as the sky turns darker and wind turns into a true gale. A much louder lonely, whistling howl echoes throughout the forest as the sudden storm moves in, all localized on their corner of the lake.

"Decades ago, I forfeited something important to supernatural forces along this waters edge, now it is your turn." The boy doesn't sound like himself. The voice is empty, hollow and amplified to such a degree that is resounds across the waterside. He begins to levitate even higher now, as his pupils disappear, replaced only with that unearthly green tint.

"Another fine mess your bullheadedness has gotten me into," Neji snaps instinctively.

"Hey! I'm not the one who insisted on playing tommy tagalong!" Tenten snaps back, her banter is apparently as much of an innate reflex as his is.

"The blame game? Really? This is what I get for trying to keep you out of trouble?"

"Well had I known this was the hell raising kind of spirit I never would've done it ok? You're too cool of a guy to do that to and maybe I just wanted your attention!"

They're shouting in each other's faces now, to be heard above the storm and because at their age they think shouting louder might give their ideas more credence. They're shouting as the water ripples and as the lake boy floats above them muttering obscure and ancient incantations. They can see the details of each other's face, the creases of concern and the intensity in the others eyes and suddenly, words just seem to spill forwards.

"You've always had my attention!" Neji shouts impulsively. Tenten stops, genuine wide eyed surprise evident in her expression. She looks more shocked that when she realized the boy was actually a ghost. Neji doesn't pause to take it in. "I think I like you and that's probably why I follow you everywhere!

"I like you to!" she blurts back reflexively. She's still not quite sure of what she's saying, but even in that moment she knows she probably means it.

"Behold!" the green spandex ghost shouts in a voice that could not have sounded less mysterious and spiritual if he'd tried. Suddenly, the gale dissipates and the clouds disperse as quickly as they'd appeared. "The curse of truthful statements!"

Neji and Tenten look around, suddenly abashed. It's a sunny day again, the birds are singing to one another, the aroma of wildflowers is potent enough to be smelled with a casual whiff of the air and they find they are suddenly very, very close to one another. Suddenly, things once again don't seem to be that bad.

"I have turned yet another curse into a blessing Sensei!" the lake boy shouts triumphantly.

Tenten and Neji quickly back away from each other, their faces all new shades of red as they bashfully try to find anything else to train their eyes on. Both eventually rest on the green child rushing out across the water cheering madly and waving his hands in the air. Suddenly he stops and flashes them the widest smile. "You two look nice together. Do come and visit again should you happen to go steady or however they say it these days…but perhaps next time bring something a little less greasy."

And with that he disappears below the water, leaving the pair alone again.


	3. The Office of Celestial Affairs

**Warning, shameless cheese and fluff ahead. **

**Drabble 3: Ancient Beings**

It was the smell of the animal grease that she used to waterproof the taught strings of her composite bow, the smell of smoking coals and blistering furnaces deep from within the basement forge of her shop, a smell of tightly bound and pristinely kept armory scrolls that heavily reminded him of old library books, it was the smell of the sunny chrysanthemums she'd loved so much. If Tenten had a smell, this would have been it, and he'd have recognized it anywhere.

Perhaps there was just something about being deceased that enhanced his olfactory senses, maybe he'd just had the infernal smell of lotus blossoms in his nose for too long, but from the second the mist had begun to twist and the winds began to change in the distance he'd known it was her.

The landscape dripped around him like a classical Chinese ink painting, a world draped in silent somber grey and black tones as quiet and nearly as stoic as the boulders on which he came to sit on everyday. Ashen mist hovered over the slowly churning waters of the sluggish river, across the faces of the tall, craggily sleeping mountain valley and through the tops of the peaked looking trees.

She was a burst of color, of energy, of life in his drab little corner of the afterlife where he'd been told to sit and wait. As soon as he'd realized she was there he'd risen to his feet and started racing down the riverside as fast as his legs could carry him while she did the same.

She looked older than when he'd left her, face tinted with age and a hint of maturity, but having lost none of its vigor. He allowed himself to take in her watery eyes and trembling lip for nothing more than a split second before putting his head down and increasing his pace.

The pair collided, immediately grasping their arms around each other and clutching them as tightly as they possibly could.

"Ten years I waited…a lot shorter than I expected." Neji said as he heard Tenten stifle a sniff and put a pleased giggle in its place. He mulled over the endless days of waiting inside his head and pushed her figure to a distance where he could good look at her though his hands remained stiffly glued to her shoulders. A smile radiated off of his face as he stared into her eyes. "You crazy knife tossing psycho."

"You miss me?" It was a barb without strength or venom to it. She swallowed audibly and wiped the tears from her eyes as she smiled back up at him. Ten years? Even in retrospect it felt like it had been an eternity. She sniffed again and quickly spun out of his grip as the tears started welling up.

"So this is your afterlife huh?" she said chocking out a laugh and looking around the landscape. "Wow, love what you've done with the place,"

"Oh hush," he smirked back in a haughtily satisfied tone. "You haven't changed."

"And what about you," she piped up, spinning back and eyeing his face like she was putting it under a microscope. Neji suddenly found himself transported back in time as he lost himself in her earthen toned eyes. The same old conundrum he'd always faced when he was still amongst the living. He had so many questions about family, friends, students, nieces or nephews perhaps…yet when he was with her none of them rose to the surface of his mind and he simply stood there with a goofy hint of a smile plying on his lips. A playful flick against his forehead brought him back to the conversation and she gave him a teasing look. "You look exactly the same as you did when you left, and not a day older.

"And somehow I'm still taller than you," he returned, baiting her with a line that had worked countless times before.

"Hyuga!" she cackled throwing herself halfheartedly at his head. He snorted aloud as he barely tried to ward off a series of playful knocks to his head before she collapsed against his shoulder and laughed. "You watch your mouth young man."

A sudden cough beside the pair snapped them from their revelry. Neji blinked at the new arrival. A short figure dressed in long crystalline robes and a boxed black hat with flat flaps protruding from either ride returned his look with one of bland indifference before turning his attention towards Tenten and cocking his head sideways as if motioning for her to speak up.

"Oh yeah, uhhh Neji this is…" she paused, snapping her fingers as if trying to find the right words to say. Neji's keen eagle eyes darted back and forth between the two with something that looked a little more heavy than simple perturbation. Tenten's face curled as she continued to hum and haw. "My manager?...In the afterlife?"

"Apt," the figure returned with a nod as he resumed looking Neji up and down like a duck at market. A coy smile split his face as he stepped back and clapped his hands together. "Well I'd say this is just perfect, we've been needing a romantic couple for quite some time now."

He procured a feather pen from somewhere deep inside his sleeves and began scribbling on a tiny golden tome thus missing the incredible shades both Neji and Tenten turned within the space of a few seconds. The two unconsciously separated themselves by a few feet as explanations and excuses spluttered from their mouths.

"What? No, no, we were never an item," Neji said, the first of the pair to adequately articulate himself. The scribbling in the tome stopped as a sour look came over the heavenly bureaucrats face.

"Oh, oh I see." He frowned. "My mistake. Oh dear this is going to require some extensive reorganizing, Our reports may have been exaggerated…we may have to send you back to headquarters."

"Because we never told each other!" Tenten piped up instantly, recovering the distance she had made between the two and latching herself onto Neji's left arm. Neji's face whirled at this sudden display of affection and he felt his face growing hot once again. From her position of his arm Tenten shot him a subtle and sudden wink. The revelation that she was hamming up her performance for her "manager" did nothing to subdue the fluttering of the butterfly's he felt in his stomach. Oh well, he agreed with her sentiment at least, no way was he splitting up after being reunited for less than two minutes.

"All these years?" he stammered in his own stoic "all to important" manner as his free hand slipped up to the cusp of her face just like the protagonist of one of those books Hanabi thought she'd hidden perfectly under her bed.

I-I…" Tenten began with a sappy, tearful stutter before finishing with all the bravado she could muster as her dark irises stared straight into him, "I never got the chance."

"Oh this is excellent, just excellent!" the manager smiled clasping his hands together. "Perhaps even better! I shall contact the Office of Celestial Bodies and have you instituted in the western summer night sky as the Reunited Lovers!"

"Come again?"

"The heaven's need a new constellation," He said as if it should've been obvious. Neji and Tenten traded looks, still gooey with romantic overtones looking surprised yet intrigued. The figure shrugged his shoulders and spoke up again. "Unless of course you'd rather remain in the solitude of Fallen Phoenix Valley…"

"We'll take it,"

* * *

"Do the stars look different to you tonight?" Lee questioned with his eyes on the night sky as he accompanied Sakura home on a night stroll.

"Yes Lee, stars can move," Sakura smiled, not looking up as she kept herself occupied with a think red medical manual. Suddenly she paused and looked behind her as Lee's footsteps came to a halt. He'd been quieter, more reserved as of late. Yet, his more distant personality shouldn't have come as much of a surprise after all he'd been through, losing both teammates. Delicately she approached and rested a hand on his shoulder snapping him from what appeared to be an incredibly intense bout of stargazing.

"Why don't you come over for dinner tonight? Sarada loves company and who knows Saskue might even drop by," she tried with a helpful smile. She took note of the uncharacteristically mellow look on his face gave and her countenance turned stern. "Are you ok?"

To her relief his lips turned upwards as he gazed skywards once again, beamed with his typical radiant smile and spoke with his characteristic definite confidence.

"I'm fine," he grinned. A brief whiff of sentimentality colored his voice as he stared headlong into the heavens. "I think everything will be alright in the end."


End file.
